


sing with me, one last time

by Woofemus



Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: If | Fire Emblem: Fates
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-07
Updated: 2016-08-07
Packaged: 2018-07-29 21:35:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,021
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7700575
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Woofemus/pseuds/Woofemus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Can no one hear her cry?</p><p>(written for azurrin week day 5: song)</p>
            </blockquote>





	sing with me, one last time

**Author's Note:**

> **spoilers for the whole game and heirs of fate**

If there is a memory Azura keeps dear to her heart more than anything else in all the worlds, it is this. 

“Azura.” Her mother calls out as soon as soon as the door to the bedchambers is open. Her voice, a soft melodious whisper, seemingly echos through the bedroom in the wide space between them. Azura quietly shuts the door behind her, and waits by the doorway.

“Why do you stand so far from me, my daughter?” Her mother’s smile is gentle as she beckons over Azura. “Come, give your mother a hug!” 

Azura steps across the room, her bare feet making the slightest sounds against the cold marbled floor. She all but throws herself into her mother’s waiting arms once she is close enough.

In between them, the pendant her mother wears presses into little Azura. Soon, it will be passed onto Azura… along with its heavy duty. 

“The song that I taught you, do you remember it?” her mother asks suddenly, stroking a hand against Azura’s cheek. Her touch is light, and Azura wishes not for the first time that this moment could last forever. Here, with just the two of them, her mother and her, in their own world, away from the cruelty and harshness of Nohrian court.

“Yes,” Azura whispers, trying to memorize the touch of her mother’s hand, the weight of it against her cheeks, the gentle caresses her mother had always given her, the warmth emanating from it. 

This, she can only faintly recall now.

“Will you sing it for me one more time?” The hand on her cheek moves to the top of her head, gently running through pale blue strands. When their eyes meet, Azura can see the love shining in her mother’s eyes. It makes her choke.

 _Stay,_ she wants to say instead,  _please don’t do this._ She’ll write her own song of pleading if it means her mother will stay. 

But she doesn’t. Even already so young, she understands. This is her mother’s last duty, her final act as the queen of an invisible kingdom. 

Azura nods, and her mother’s eyes close, seemingly at peace. “Thank you, my daughter. Your voice has always been a precious treasure of mine… I wish to keep it with me forever.” 

Azura wishes she were selfish enough to tell her mother to stay. There would have been no doubt in the world that her mother would have done so if Azura pleaded with her so desperately. 

The regret Azura never stops feeling stops her from recalling this memory too often. It is the deepest scar Azura has, one that stings far more than any physical blow dealt to her. 

But it also helps her remember her mother’s sacrifice, of the duty Azura must carry on, of the curse Azura must bear as Valla’s last princess. 

“ _Will you sing it for me one more time?”_  

Azura takes a deep breath, and breathes to life her strongest weapon.

* * *

“Sing with me, a song of birthrights and love,” she croons to the air, dancing all over the stage. Her eyes fix on King Garon where he sits in the balcony of the theater. Through the water shimmering all around her, she catches movement from his booth. 

Will it be enough? Will she be able to end it here this time? Will she finally be able to save everyone without sacrificing anyone else? 

How much more can she sing before the pain tears her apart? 

She finishes her singing, the pain becoming more than unbearable at this point. It takes all of her strength to even remain standing still, to merely look like she is only out of breath and not being torn from inside out. There is commotion, and Azura realizes with disappointment that her song had little effect.

Then… next time, she will need more power… for Azura to fully weaken King Garon, then… she has to…

Ah… but… can she even survive to that final confrontation? Her body screams with pain as she collapses next to the lake. It had taken absolutely all of her fortitude and willpower to not collapse outright after the last battle, if it even can be called a battle, with Prince Xander himself coming for their heads. Escape was their only option, and Azura is more than glad for that decision.

Azura chokes back the gasp of pain, clutching at her pendant with desperation as she attempts to suppress the pain with reminders of her duty.

_King Garon still lives, I cannot die here._

_Valla must be stopped, I cannot die here._

_For my mother’s sake, I cannot die here._

Against her will, one more desperate plea comes to her thoughts.

_Corrin would be sad, I cannot die here._

“Azura?!”

As if beckoned by her thoughts, Corrin is suddenly there, holding her up. Corrin’s hands are warm, searing hot where they lay upon her body. 

“I’m… fine,” Azura speaks through gritted teeth, pushing back the cry of pain. She needs to endure through this. The fate of the world hangs in the balance if she disappears here.  _You must,_ she tells herself,  _because no one else can._ “I… I will live.”

“Azura…” Corrin’s voice reaches her ears, and Azura nearly feels her resolve shatter at the helplessness she can hear. 

Her soul sings with relief at hearing that kind voice once more. It heals her, soothes her, rejuvenates her.  She has heard this voice too many times, and each and every time, she is weak. Corrin has always been a pillar for her, keeping Azura steadfast and reminding her that not all hope is lost with the world.

 _Please do not waste that kindness on me_ , Azura wants to say instead,  _show your love to someone else who will not leave you,_  but she holds her tongue. 

Sometimes, in her truly darkest moments, it is  _please hold me tight and never let me go._

* * *

King Garon gives one final death roar before he crashes against the floor, still and unmoving. After all the fighting, it takes more than several minutes for the realization to set in. 

“We… we did it,” Corrin whispers in shocked glee, Yato slipping from her hands. It clatters noisily against the floor but the sound is drowned out by the sudden cheering. 

Azura wants her to keep looking forward. 

_Don’t turn around, please let me…_

Corrin whirls around, and the smile drops from her face. 

Azura can offer no words, not with the pain rending her body apart. Already, she can’t feel her legs, dissipating into the water flowing above. 

 _There is still one more threat_ , she wants to speak,  _Valla is still out there, King Garon was only a servant to the true monster… there is… still so much more to be done…_

It is the look of absolute anguish on Corrin’s face that makes Azura decide to be selfish instead, for once in her life. With all of her strength, she musters one final line.  

“One more smile… before I go?” 

Just as Corrin’s lips begin to twitch upward, darkness takes Azura away. 

* * *

Once more, she wakes, and in this world–

“Sing with me, a song of conquest and fate,” she calls to the impostor on the throne, letting herself hope for one last time. Just as it is in all the past world and all the other worlds, nothing changes, and her hope flickers away. 

“Azura.” Corrin comes to stand next to her once they are away from battle. This Corrin looks different from the last one she is used to, her long hair cut short now, and there is a scar above her eye that was never there.

But her kind soul is the same, and Azura falls in love every single time.

 _Do not waste your time on me, I will be gone soon,_  she wants to say,  _don’t look at me like that._

“With you by my side, Azura, I feel like I can do anything,” Corrin whispers to her once, under the waning moonlight. Water splashes at their feet from where they stand in the lake, cold and chilled. Azura had only meant to dance and sing for a single moment, but Corrin had come, and in a flash of weakness, Azura had given into her indulgence and allowed Corrin to join her. 

Corrin’s arms are wound tight around her, holding her as if she’ll disappear into the night. It makes Azura want to laugh, and never stop. 

It will not be  _here_  that she will disappear, that much she can remember.

When will this madness end? Will there ever come a time where she won’t be bound to this curse? When can they finally be freed? 

When will  _she_ finally be freed? 

How many more times must she see the devastation of a kingdom? How much more must she take of her pendant ripping her apart and mending her together into a new world with memories even hazier than before? How much longer must she wait for the right answer to appear? 

Can no one hear her cry?

Corrin’s embrace is a hollow solace, but Azura has long grown weary. 

* * *

“I… choose no side!” Corrin announces instead in this world.

Azura feels the pieces suddenly click into place. Her pendant seems to hum against her, thrumming with energy. 

This… is this the answer she was waiting for this whole time? Was it never meant to be Hoshido _or_ Nohr? Was there truly a third option? 

How many worlds has she already gone through before this revelation?

“Azura, let’s go.” Corrin, with her mind made up even with the thought of fighting her family, is already more than prepared. “I know with you by my side, we can get through this.”

“Even if the world were to turn against us, I will always be here for you,” Azura finishes in a single breath, holding back the rest of her words.

_Save the world from calamity._

_Please, save me from my duty._

_I… do not wish to die._

Instead, she prepares her weapon once more, the song engraved into her very soul. Will it finally be used for its true intent here in this world? Will she finally be able to see true peace in this world? 

Will she live long enough this time? 

She doesn’t know, has never known when she did. If this is the path the world is taking though… if this is the fate Corrin has chosen for this world…

Azura will see it to the end, as she has always done.

Corrin comes to take her hand, trembling with the weight of all the decisions she’s just announced. In this world, they’ve barely just met, but Azura has already long known Corrin before Corrin has even known of her existence. Can Corrin’s soul feel the touches of the worlds already between them? Has Azura already long gone delusional at this point?  

Will this world finally be different? 

Azura doesn’t know, can only pray that it is.

Instead, she allows herself to press against Corrin’s hand, intertwining their fingers together just as their fates have always been, and begins her song once more, for this world, for her mother’s sacrifices. 

“Sing with me, a song of silence and blood…” 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Shigure takes one last look at the pendant in his hands. With its final duty done, he fulfills his last promise to his mother. He slowly tilts his hand, watches as it sinks into the water with nary a sound, as if the water has already accepted it. The glow of the pale blue stone within flickers before dimming in the darkness of the water.

His hand is shaking as he clasps tight his own dragonstone, steadying himself. He takes a deep breath and readies his voice, the last of his mementos of his family.

“Sing with me, one last time,” he finishes in place of his mother, as a dirge to his fallen parents, to his grandmothers who could only be saved through death twice, and to his maddened grandfather who took them all away, “for light’s sacrifice, endless dawn came but not without a price…” 


End file.
